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Article 1: Danforth, J. S., Connor, D. F., & Doerfler, L. A. (2016). The development of comorbid conduct problems in children with ADHD: An example of an integrative developmental psychopathology perspective. Journal of Attention Disorders, 20, 214–229. doi: 10.1177/1087054713517546

Learning Objective: 1.3 Understand and give examples of some of the basic principles of developmental psychopathology.

Summary: Children with ADHD experience more conduct problems than would otherwise be expected from the risk factors they experience. The authors use a developmental psychopathology approach to examine how the interaction of multiple factors, including genetic risk, neurodevelopmental factors, and parent and child bidirectional influences, increases the risk of conduct problems in children with ADHD.

Questions to Consider:

1. As the authors note, our genes are not our destiny. How do genes and the environment interact to increase or decrease risk in children with ADHD?
2. The relationship between parenting and child behavior is described as bidirectional. What does this mean? Provide an example of this. What does this mean for the treatment of children with ADHD?
3. After reading about the role of parental attributions and coercion theory, what advice would you have to help parents of children with ADHD?

Article 2: Deighton, J., Argent, R., De Francesco, D., Edbrooke-Childs, J., Jacob, J., Fleming I., Ford, T., & Wolpert, M. (2016). Associations between evidence-based practice and mental health outcomes in child and adolescent mental health services. Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 287–296. doi:10.1177/1359104515589637

Learning Objective: 1.4 Explain why evidence-based practice is helping children and families experiencing mental health problems.

Summary: Much of the research on evidence-based practice (EBP) is conducted in highly structured research settings. This study examined the efficacy of EBPs for children with conduct disorder or emotional disorders in a real-life setting. Relatively few children were receiving EBPs, and results suggested modest improvement for those in EBP over non-EBP treatments.

Questions to Consider:

1. Why might you expect to find differences in the efficacy of evidence-based treatments for those in routine care versus research studies?
2. Why do you think EBPs did not show more of an effect for conduct problems in routine care?
3. The study found that few children were actually receiving EBPs. Why might this be? Is this a concern? Why or why not?